Friday, March 09, 2007

Into the Batcave with The Last days of Jesus

Since 1993 they have been one of the most unique deathrock groups of Europe, they hail from the Batcaves of Bratislava, Slovakia.Let´s see what they had to say...The Last days of Jesus was formed in 1993, how has things changed since then?

- You know, the things have changed as wehave been changing through the years.When we started we were approx. 20 years old.Now we´re over 30. Some illusions are lostbut some new are still coming up.Probably we are more straigth in our musicas well as in the lyrics, more ironic,full of sarcasm....

What is the current line-up?

- The line up is the same like on the Alien Road album.Fessy - guitars, Anjou de Cou-Cou- keys, Vajco - drums,mary0 the robotjoker - voice...we just use some different nicks for every album asour mental illnesses are changing every year...

You are currently of Strobelight records, how did you end up with them and how has it been so far?

- We contacted them, I think it was somewhere in 2003,to get some promo copies of their bands for our BatCave.skwebzine we are running here. Well, and then we finished thesongs for the Alien Road album and realizedwe had no label. So, then it went very quickly,a question, an answer, a contract, an album, great;-)They supported us intensively and we stayed in contact,so now there is another contract for the upcoming album in our safe.

So far, what has been the most important musical experience with your band?

- As we have been existing for almost 14 yearsthere were a lot of experiences in our past.Well, some of the most important experienceswas the contract and fucking bad cooperation with EMI-Monitor,but first of all it is about all the moments and adventures at ourlive concerts and tours, as well as the already mentioned good co-workwith the guys from our current label Strobelight.

Let´s talk little about your childhood,What was the first record you bought?How did you get involved with Deathrock?

- Let me think... Hm, as I can remember my first record which I boughtby myself was a cassette tape of the Slovak hard rock band Tublatankain 1983 or 1984 ;-))) However, then I was a big fan of Depeche Mode& New Romantic. First contact to Deathrockwas Christian Death... and that was in thesecond half of the Eighties.In those times I also started to listen to bandslike The Damned or Lords of the New Church.

What is the status for "Dead Machines Revolution"?

- The modern age is an unrelenting struggle of humans andtheir devices and there is no winner. We can see it all around us?the human race lives in consume, anything new, modern,attractive is going old and out within a flash of second."Dead Machines Revolution" is the reaction of old butviable and functioning engines against the empty values of the modern age.

How did you start making music? For example, are there any special routines in your songwriting, like you need a certain kind of atmosphere around you before you are able to write new music?

- Hm, we had something like that in the past.Now we can say that we are happy when we have enough time for rehearsals.Usually we are so tired of work that you can hear our frustrationin our lyrics as well as in the music.That´s why we are more straight, ironic and rough as well.

MaryO and TLDOJ manager martin aka DJ Sexdwarf, run batcave club in Bratislava, Tell us more about this?

- Well, the Batcave Party has been organised regularly since 1996and became the oldest and most famous Old School Goth/Deathrock/Electro/Punk n Waveparty in Slovakia. We organise also concerts and other events.We do it totally away from the pseudo-gothbands on MTV andin the glossy so-called Goth-magazines, we want to dedicate our webzine,the parties and the selection of live acts to the Originals andeverybody who can uniquely exploit the heritage ofclassic bands and the roots of the genre...We already such bands playing live, like Antiworld, All Gone Dead,Devilish Presley, Miguel and the Living Dead,Quidam, Deathcamp Project, LT-No, Scarlet & the Spooky Spidersand many many others.

Following the previous question, how is the scene in Slovakia?

- Well, the situation in Slovakia is very similar to theother countries in CE region. People mostly listen to the so called Gothic Metal,Dark Techno Industrial or whatever you´d call this shit.But we have no real old school goth/deathrock/horror punk scene,even as mentioned our parties are more or less into thismusic and the situation in our hometown Bratislava is differentand much better than anywhere else in Slovakia.Our Batcave parties have regularly 100 - 300 visitors.

Bands you can recommend from Slovakia?

- The Last Days of Jesus ;-) ...Well, there´s not so much to recommend.We have a quite good electro-industrial scene(check out the hard industrial band called Einleitungszeit for example)and a strong punk scene (Zona A for example).But there´s no other interesting band in goth/deathrock in my opinion...

You have toured across Europe and in north America too, when is Finland´s turn?- Next week, with all pleasure;-) ...you know, it´s always up to theorganizers (our mail address is on our website).

This is the last one, what do you hope from the future, careerwise?

- We hope people will enjoy our new album.Then, hope we can meet a lot of new nice people & friends...And, of course, we would like to earn really big money with our music...